The Pumpkin Rollers - Hardcover

Kelton, Elmer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312860765 ISBN 13: 9780312860769

Publisher: Forge, 1996

Synopsis

A Spur Award-winning novelist of the American West tells the story of a farmboy from Texas who joins a cattle drive to Kansas, during which he becomes an apprentice to a veteran cowboy and clashes with a notorious outlaw. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

About this title

Reviews

Six-time Golden Spur winner Kelton (The Far Canyon, etc.) produces westerns that are far from routine oaters, and this new novel set in post-Civil War Texas is high-quality fare. Pumpkin rollers such as Kelton's new hero, Trey McLean, are farmboys-turned-cowpokes who don't yet know one end of a steer from the other. When the "War of Northern Aggression" ends and his brother returns from fighting the despised Yankees, Trey leaves the suddenly crowded East Texas homestead and heads west with $17 in his pocket. After losing his money to a sharpie, the green youth reaches the cowtown of Fort Worth. There, he gets a job as a drover, meets his future love and learns the herding trade from a grizzled old-timer. The requisite violence of the genre is provided by marauding Comanches and gunman Jarrett Longacre, who pops up in Trey's life with uneasy regularity. Trey eventually becomes a pro drover, marries Sarah and watches the cycle of life on the range begin again. Though not Kelton's best, with its colorful argot, lively period detail and manly action, this novel will no doubt be corralled by a passel of western fans.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One still experiences a sense of d‚j… vu reading a historical by Kelton (The Far Canyon, 1994, etc.). We have met these characters and they are us: sometimes weak and foolish, sometimes heroic, always complex and, for the most part, fundamentally decent. Young Trey McLean is a pumpkin roller (farmer) with ambitions of being a cattleman. Leaving his father's East Texas farm with a dun horse and four old cows he rides toward the unclaimed lands ``out west.'' When his cows are stolen by a greedy farmer with the connivance of a dishonest sheriff, it is not his anger at this injustice but his helplessness to alter the situation that wins us over. He is not an archetypal macho hero with blazing six-guns but an ordinary man who confronts unfairness with gritted teeth. We share Trey's confused response to Jarrett Longacre, a top hand and a fugitive from the law, whose thoughtless outlaw ways embroil Trey with Marshal Gault, a lawman with an obsessive, unforgiving nature. Jarrett is a likable, troublesome presence in each stage of Trey's life and labors: the wagon yard in Fort Worth; on Ivan Kerbow's cattle drive, the event signalling Trey's rite of passage from farmer to cowboy; on Kerbow's ranch in far West Texas. When Trey marries Sarah Stark and agrees to manage Kerbow's ranch, Kelton adds a feminine dimension to the narrative. Just as Jarrett stands in contrast to Trey, Katy Rice, a former prostitute who becomes involved with Jarrett, is Sarah's opposite. Sarah's fear of loneliness has her hearing voices in the wind, while Katy relishes solitude. The final confrontation between Jarrett and Gault forces each of these four characters to resolve their inner conflicts and accept the consequences. A superb coming-of-age novel by a master western storyteller whose deft touch with characterization is underappreciated. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Trey McLean is a little young to leave his parents' east Texas farm--he's 18--but he's ready to live his dream of becoming a cattleman. On his way west, however, his little four-cow herd is stolen by a crooked sheriff. More troubles follow, as Trey runs afoul and also meets young Sarah Stark, a comely rancher's daughter with whom he will eventually fall in love. This is a coming-of-age tale, western style, and veteran genre-master Kelton handles the theme well. The key characters are all carefully and believably rendered; no one steps out of character yet none responds with a cliche. Trey McLean will stay with readers awhile. It's a pleasure to share the heady sense of freedom he feels as he leaves home and to empathize as the numerous setbacks slow his progress but never destroy his resolve. And when he makes his ultimate decision regarding his life and Sarah, it's born out of a newfound maturity coupled with his dreams. Fine reading. Wes Lukowsky

Kelton (The Far Canyon, LJ 8/94) has won enough Golden Spur awards to outfit an entire posse. In this latest, a young Texan makes his mark as a cattleman.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312860765
• ISBN 13: 9780312860769
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 301